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“When employees are using their work email address for personal activities such as online shopping, they are much more likely to fall victim to a phishing attack,” said Jacqueline Jayne.
According to a recent study by KnowBe4, the number of IT decision-makers in Singapore concerned about cyber threats, such as phishing and business email compromise (BEC), has declined in 2021.
Phishing is a form of cybercrime that involves luring individuals to disclose sensitive information, such as their banking and credit card details and passwords. This is done through fake emails, telephone calls, or text messages initiated by individuals posing as legitimate institutions.
Despite this, the study has found that fewer than half of the employees in Singapore are aware of the potential risks of cyber attacks, and only a tiny percentage of them can identify phishing and BEC emails.
Of particular concern, the study found that over a third of office workers use the same password for multiple accounts and utilise their work phones for personal use, potentially exposing organisations to security threats.
“Having a clear separation between work and personal activities makes it much easier to spot when an email is a scam – if you know you never shop online using your work email address, then you know that email from Amazon cannot be real,” explains Jacqueline Jayne, Security Awareness Advocate for APAC, KnowBe4.
From a positive standpoint, a majority of employees, precisely 61%, refrain from interacting with fake emails, while another significant percentage of 57% never engage with suspicious SMS messages. However, the statistics reveal that only 37% of the workforce consistently reports such emails and SMS messages to the IT team responsible for cybersecurity.
The research also indicates that younger employees, specifically millennials, are likely to use the same password for multiple accounts and their work email for personal purposes. However, they are also more confident in distinguishing real emails from fake emails and not engaging with suspicious SMS, as opposed to Gen Z and Baby Boomers.
KnowBe4 has stated that awareness represents the ‘foremost method’ of avoiding the risk of succumbing to a phishing or spam email. Therefore, employees must be educated and exercise caution before taking any action.
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